BREAD baking

The smell of freshly baked bread wafting from the oven is unparalleled in the happy impressions of my childhood.   It told us that Mom's warm, soft, fluffy, hard crusted bread was about to come out of the oven and be smothered with melty butter for us kids to devour.


My mouth is watering just thinking about it.  Or is it watering because a similar smell is wafting through the air as I write this?  Today's batch of several loaves is about to come out of the oven and be tested to my family's high standards for palatability.  I'm trying some healthier alternatives to the not-too-nutritious and far-too-poisonous store-shelf foods.

I've finally come back to my roots of making bread.  Like most of us, I've gone away from my childhood training, in favor of a busy work and event filled schedule.  But today I stumbled across one of the many cookbooks I picked up as a youngster (during my restaurant aspirations) that, of course, I had never read.  Amazing the insight one can gain by actually reading some of those pages sitting over on the shelf!  What I found was enlightening.  I learned about natural nutrition in different ingredients, and how much is lost in processing foods.  Now, I know some nutritionists are against bread altogether, but for a bread-habit family, I found lots of new and vastly healthier options than Hostess.  

Have you ever heard of using brown rice flour, soy flour, corn flour, carob powder?  Who of you has made hardtack or Swedish flat bread?  These are all experiments I plan to tackle as soon as I get a little better equipped to be  "the adventurous cook," as Ms.  Hunter puts it.  I've always loved fresh bread, but now I take it to a new level.  And I will try everything I can to find a homemade cheese cracker to substitute for the salt and hydrogenated oil store-bought version!  Can you imagine eating a fresh-out-of-the-oven cracker? YUM!



1 comments:

Kathy J said...

Brings back so many warm cozy delicious memories! Don't forget the yummy homemade Strawberry Rhubarb Jams we had in dipping bowls for the fresh bread too!! Can't wait to try your better healthier breads, and looking very forward to trying those crackers!!

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